Scientic journal
For a broader class of journals, see Academic journal.
Science journal redirects here. For the journal named
'Science', see Science (journal). For the defunct maga-
zine named 'Science Journal', see New Scientist.
For a broader coverage related to this topic, see Scientic
literature.
In academic publishing, a scientic journal is a
Cover of the rst issue of Nature, 4 November 1869
periodical publication intended to further the progress of
science, usually by reporting new research. There are
thousands of scientic journals in publication, and many
more have been published at various points in the past
(see list of scientic journals). Most journals are highly
specialized, although some of the oldest journals such
as Nature publish articles and scientic papers across a
wide range of scientic elds. Scientic journals contain
articles that have been peer reviewed, in an attempt to
ensure that articles meet the journals standards of qual-
ity, and scientic validity. If the journals editor consid-
ers the paper appropriate, at least two researchers prefer-
ably from the same eld check the paper for soundness
of its scientic argument, and must agree to publish it.
1
Although scientic journals are supercially similar to
professional magazines, they are actually quite dier-
ent. Issues of a scientic journal are rarely read casu-
ally, as one would read a magazine. The publication of
the results of research is an essential part of the scientic
method. If they are describing experiments or calcula-
tions, they must supply enough details that an independent
researcher could repeat the experiment or calculation to
verify the results. Each such journal article becomes part
of the permanent scientic record.
The history of scientic journals dates from 1665,
when the French Journal des savans and the English
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society rst began
systematically publishing research results. Over a thou-
sand, mostly ephemeral, were founded in the 18th cen-
tury, and the number has increased rapidly after that.[1]
Articles in scientic journals can be used in research and
higher education. Scientic articles allow researchers to
keep up to date with the developments of their eld and
direct their own research. An essential part of a scien-
tic article is citation of earlier work. The impact of ar-
ticles and journals is often assessed by counting citations
(citation impact). Some classes are partially devoted to
the explication of classic articles, and seminar classes can
consist of the presentation by each student of a classic
or current paper. Schoolbooks and textbooks have been
written usually only on established topics, while the lat-
est research and more obscure topics are only accessible
through scientic articles. In a scientic research group
or academic department it is usual for the content of cur-
rent scientic journals to be discussed in journal clubs.
Academic credentials for promotion into academic ranks
are established in large part by the number and impact of
scientic articles published, and many doctoral programs
allow for thesis by publication, where the candidate is re-
quired to publish a certain number of scientic articles.
The standards that a journal uses to determine publication
can vary widely. Some journals, such as Nature, Science,
PNAS, and Physical Review Letters, have a reputation of
publishing articles that mark a fundamental breakthrough
in their respective elds. In many elds, an informal hi-
erarchy of scientic journals exists; the most prestigious
journal in a eld tends to be the most selective in terms of
the articles it will select for publication, and will also have
the highest impact factor. It is also common for journals
to have a regional focus, specializing in publishing papers
from a particular country or other geographic region, like
African Invertebrates.
2 1
Articles tend to be highly technical, representing the latest
theoretical research and experimental results in the eld
of science covered by the journal. They are often incom-
prehensible to anyone except for researchers in the eld
and advanced students. In some subjects this is inevitable
given the nature of the content. Usually, rigorous rules of
scientic writing are enforced by the editors; however,
these rules may vary from journal to journal, especially
between journals from dierent publishers. Articles are
usually either original articles reporting completely new
results or reviews of current literature. There are also
scientic publications that bridge the gap between arti-
cles and books by publishing thematic volumes of chap-
ters from dierent authors.
1 Types of articles
Further information: Scientic paper
See also: Categories of academic articles
There are several types of journal articles; the exact ter-
Cover of the rst volume of the Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society, the rst journal in the world exclusively devoted
to science
minology and denitions vary by eld and specic jour- In addition to the above, some scientic journals such as
nal, but often include:
opments (often involving political issues) are described.
Letters (also called communications, and not to be These articles are often written by science journalists and
confused with letters to the editor) are short descrip- not by scientists. In addition, some journals will include
TYPES OF ARTICLES
tions of important current research ndings that are
usually fast-tracked for immediate publication be-
cause they are considered urgent.
Research notes are short descriptions of current re-
search ndings that are considered less urgent or im-
portant than Letters.
Articles are usually between ve and twenty pages
and are complete descriptions of current original re-
search ndings, but there are considerable variations
between scientic elds and journals 80-page arti-
cles are not rare in mathematics or theoretical com-
puter science.
Supplemental articles contain a large volume of
tabular data that is the result of current research and
may be dozens or hundreds of pages with mostly nu-
merical data. Some journals now only publish this
data electronically on the Internet.
Review articles do not cover original research but
rather accumulate the results of many dierent ar-
ticles on a particular topic into a coherent narrative
about the state of the art in that eld. Review ar-
ticles provide information about the topic and also
provide journal references to the original research.
Reviews may be entirely narrative, or may provide
quantitative summary estimates resulting from the
application of meta-analytical methods.
Data papers are articles dedicated to describe
datasets. This type of article is becoming popu-
lar and journals exclusively dedicated to them have
been established, e.g. Scientic Data and Earth Sys-
tem Science Data.
Video papers are a recent addition to practice
of scientic publications. They most often com-
bine an online video demonstration of a new tech-
nique or protocol combined with a rigorous textual
description.[2][3]
The formats of journal articles vary, but many fol-
low the general IMRAD scheme recommended by the
International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.
Such articles begin with an abstract, which is a one-to-
four-paragraph summary of the paper. The introduction
describes the background for the research including a dis-
cussion of similar research. The materials and methods
or experimental section provides specic details of how
the research was conducted. The results and discussion
section describes the outcome and implications of the re-
search, and the conclusion section places the research in
context and describes avenues for further exploration.
Science will include a news section where scientic devel-
 3

an editorial section and a section for letters to the edi- countries.[4]

tor. While these are articles published within a journal, Moreover, electronic publishing of scientic journals has
in general they are not regarded as scientic journal arti- been accomplished without compromising the standards
cles because they have not been peer-reviewed. of the refereed, peer review process.[4][5]
One form is the online equivalent of the conventional
paper journal. By 2006, almost all scientic journals
2 Electronic publishing have, while retaining their peer-review process, estab-
lished electronic versions; a number have moved entirely
Main articles: Eprint, Electronic article, and Electronic to electronic publication. In similar manner, most aca-
journal demic libraries buy the electronic version, and purchase
a paper copy only for the most important or most-used
titles.
Electronic publishing is a new area of information
dissemination. One denition of electronic publishing There is usually a delay of several months after an article
is in the context of the scientic journal. It is the pre- is written before it is published in a journal, making pa-
sentation of scholarly scientic results in only an elec- per journals not an ideal format for announcing the latest
tronic (non-paper) form. This is from its rst write-up, research. Many journals now publish the nal papers in
or creation, to its publication or dissemination. The elec- their electronic version as soon as they are ready, without
tronic scientic journal is specically designed to be pre- waiting for the assembly of a complete issue, as is nec-
sented on the internet. It is dened as not being previously essary with paper. In many elds in which even greater
printed material adapted, or re-tooled, and then delivered speed is wanted, such as physics, the role of the jour-
electronically.[4][5] nal at disseminating the latest research has largely been
replaced by preprint databases such as arXiv.org. Al-
Electronic publishing will exist alongside paper publish-
most all such articles are eventually published in tradi-
ing, because printed paper publishing is not expected to
tional journals, which still provide an important role in
disappear in the future. Output to a screen is impor-
quality control, archiving papers, and establishing scien-
tant for browsing and searching but is not well adapted
tic credit.
for extensive reading. Paper copies of selected informa-
tion will denitely be required. Therefore, the article
has to be transmitted electronically to the readers local
printer. Formats suitable both for reading on paper, and
for manipulation by the readers computer will need to be
3 Cost
integrated.[4][5] Many journals are electronically available
in formats readable on screen via web browsers, as well Main article: Academic publishing Publishers and
as in portable document format PDF, suitable for print- business aspects
ing and storing on a local desktop or laptop computer. See also: Academic journal Costs
New tools such as JATS and Utopia Documents provide
a 'bridge' to the 'web-versions in that they connect the
Many scientists and librarians have long protested the cost
content in PDF versions directly to the WorldWideWeb of journals, especially as they see these payments go-
via hyperlinks that are created 'on-the-y'. The PDF ver-
ing to large for-prot publishing houses . To allow their
sion of an article is usually seen as the version of record, researchers online access to journals, many universities
but the matter is subject to some debate.[6]
purchase site licenses, permitting access from anywhere
Electronic counterparts of established print journals al- in the university, and, with appropriate authorization, by
ready promote and deliver rapid dissemination of peer re- university-aliated users at home or elsewhere. These
viewed and edited, published articles. Other journals, may be quite expensive, sometimes much more than the
whether spin-os of established print journals, or created cost for a print subscription, although this may reect the
as electronic only, have come into existence promoting number of people who will be using the license - while
the rapid dissemination capability, and availability, on the a print subscription is the cost for one person to receive
Internet. In tandem with this is the speeding up of peer the journal; a site-license can allow thousands of people
review, copyediting, page makeup, and other steps in the to gain access.
process to support rapid dissemination.[7] Publications by scholarly societies, also known as not-for-
Other improvements, benets and unique values of elec- prot-publishers, usually cost less than commercial pub-
tronically publishing the scientic journal are easy avail- lishers, but the prices of their scientic journals are still
ability of supplementary materials (data, graphics and usually several thousand dollars a year. In general, this
video), lower cost, and availability to more people, es- money is used to fund the activities of the scientic so-
pecially scientists from non-developed countries. Hence, cieties that run such journals, or is invested in providing
research results from more developed nations are be- further scholarly resources for scientists; thus, the money
coming more accessible to scientists from non-developed remains in and benets the scientic sphere.
4 6 REFERENCES

Despite the transition to electronic publishing, the serials Mega journal

crisis persists.[8]
Open access journal
Concerns about cost and open access have led to the cre-
ation of free-access journals such as the Public Library Publish or perish
of Science (PLoS) family and partly open or reduced- Scientic writing
cost journals such as the Journal of High Energy Physics.
However, professional editors still have to be paid, and San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment
PLoS still relies heavily on donations from foundations
to cover the majority of its operating costs; smaller jour-
nals do not often have access to such resources. 6 References
Based on statistical arguments, it has been shown that
electronic publishing online, and to some extent open ac- [1] D. A. Kronick, History of Scientic and Technical Period-
cess, both provide wider dissemination and increase the icals, 2nd ed. Scarecrow, 1976
average number of citations an article receives.[9] [2] http://www.jove.com/

[3] " """. Scientic journal

Videonauka.
4 Copyright
[4] Heller, Stephen, R. (1998). Electronic Publishing of
Traditionally, the author of an article was required to Scientic Manuscripts. Encyclopedia of Computational
transfer the copyright to the journal publisher. Publish- Chemistry. 02. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 871875. Re-
trieved 2010-06-16.
ers claimed this was necessary in order to protect authors
rights, and to coordinate permissions for reprints or other [5] Boyce, Peter B.; Heather Dalterio (January 1996).
use. However, many authors, especially those active in Electronic Publishing of Scientic Journals (Arti-
the open access movement, found this unsatisfactory,[10] cle available to the public in HTML.). Physics To-
and have used their inuence to eect a gradual move to- day. American Institute of Physics. 49 (01).
wards a license to publish instead. Under such a system, Bibcode:1996PhT....49a..42B. doi:10.1063/1.881598.
the publisher has permission to edit, print, and distribute [6] Pettifer, S.; McDermott, P.; Marsh, J.; Thorne, D.;
the article commercially, but the authors retain the other Villeger, A.; Attwood, T.K. (2011). Ceci n'est pas
rights themselves. un hamburger: modelling and representing the schol-
arly article. Learned Publishing. 24 (3): 207220.
Even if they retain the copyright to an article, most jour-
doi:10.1087/20110309.
nals allow certain rights to their authors. These rights usu-
ally include the ability to reuse parts of the paper in the [7] Swygart-Hobaugh, Rob Kling, Amanda J. The Internet
authors future work, and allow the author to distribute and the Velocity of Scholarly Journal Publishing. schol-
a limited number of copies. In the print format, such arworks.iu.edu. Retrieved 2016-10-26.
copies are called reprints; in the electronic format, they [8] Sample, Ian (24 April 2012). Harvard University says it
are called postprints. Some publishers, for example the can't aord journal publishers prices. The Guardian.
American Physical Society, also grant the author the right
to post and update the article on the authors or employers [9] Lawrence, Steve. Online Or Invisible?". NEC Research
website and on free e-print servers, to grant permission to Institute.
others to use or reuse gures, and even to reprint the ar- [10] Di Cosmo, Roberto (June 2006). The Role of Public
ticle as long as no fee is charged.[11] The rise of open ac- Administrations in The ICT Era (PDF). UPGRADE: the
cess journals, in which the author retains the copyright but European Journal for the Informatics Professional. 7 (3):
must pay a publication charge, such as the Public Library 418. ISSN 1684-5285.
of Science family of journals, is another recent response
[11] APS Copyright Policies and Frequently Asked Ques-
to copyright concerns.
tions.

A.J. Meadows, ed. The Scientic Journal. London :

5 See also Aslib, c1979. ISBN 0-85142-118-0

List of scientic journals R.E. Abel et al. Scholarly Publishing: Books Jour-
nals, Publishers, and Libraries in the Twentieth Cen-
Academic authorship tury N.Y.: Wiley, 2002. ISBN 0-471-21929-0
Academic conference D.W. King et al. Scientic Journals in the United
Citation index States: their Production, Use, and Economics.
Stroudsberg, PA: Hutchinson-Ross, 1981 ISBN 0-
Copyright policies of scientic publishers 87933-380-4
 5

7 External links
The cost of publishing in a scientic journal, some
examples and recommended reading from Open-
WetWare life scientists wiki
6 8 TEXT AND IMAGE SOURCES, CONTRIBUTORS, AND LICENSES

8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

8.1 Text
Scientic journal Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_journal?oldid=758939941 Contributors: Mav, Bryan Derksen, Robert
Merkel, Timo Honkasalo, The Anome, Koyaanis Qatsi, AstroNomer, -- April, Fnielsen, Jkominek, Roadrunner, Olivier, Michael Hardy,
Tim Starling, Lexor, Looxix~enwiki, JWSchmidt, Kaihsu, Charles Matthews, Ike9898, Philopp, Rls, Wilke, David.Monniaux, Donar-
reiskoer, Nurg, Seglea, Jeroen, GreatWhiteNortherner, Duncharris, SanderSpek~enwiki, Edcolins, Papa Lemming, Wmahan, James
Crippen, Piotrus, PhDP, Karol Langner, Icairns, JTN, Noisy, Discospinster, El C, Shanes, RoyBoy, Thisrod, Hooperbloob, Arthena,
Plumbago, Kocio, Wtmitchell, Velella, Vuo, Matthew238, Carcharoth, Ruud Koot, Nobbie, Pharmacomancer, Rnt20, Qwertyus, Rjwilmsi,
BlueMoonlet, Brighterorange, FlaBot, Eubot, Jakob Suckale, Chobot, RobotE, RussBot, Pigman, Rbadri, Snek01, Tsalman, Tomisti,
Petri Krohn, SmackBot, Saihtam, Kjaergaard, Kslays, Edgar181, Flux.books, Chris the speller, Bduke, Miguel Andrade, Modest Genius,
Haas.M, Harnad, Cybercobra, Drphilharmonic, Tbauer, Tesseran, Vgy7ujm, Ben Moore, Ckatz, TheOtherStephan, Iridescent, Chemical-
Bit, Leevanjackson, Some P. Erson, Krauss, Tawkerbot4, Calvero JP, Thijs!bot, Al Lemos, Headbomb, QuiteUnusual, Danger, JAnDbot,
Karlpearson, Ultracobalt, Hroulf, Jimjamjak, Adam4445, DGG, Velterop, Epiding, CommonsDelinker, HEL, Nigholith, Ross Fraser,
Bonadea, VolkovBot, Fences and windows, Barneca, Vipinhari, Guillaume2303, Nihiliststar, Steven J. Anderson, Broadbot, Axiomsof-
choice, Paradoctor, Joaosampaio, Flyer22 Reborn, Yerpo, Jdaloner, Lightmouse, Mild Bill Hiccup, VAL THE FACTS, Awickert, Rhodo-
dendrites, Elrodriguez, Fgnievinski, Mac Dreamstate, BlueQ99, CarsracBot, Chateau Brillant, Xenobot, Yobot, MassimoAr, Raimundo
Pastor, Cony, AnomieBOT, Gutam2000, Undelope32, Raymondsutjiadi, Andreadb, Faramir333, Crzer07, , Grantmid-
night, Steve Quinn, A little insignicant, Heyclement, Time9, Leonardo.candela, Blind cyclist, Jesse V., RjwilmsiBot, Playmobilonhishorse,
Dcirovic, Nekami, RockMagnetist, Bluebibi, ClueBot NG, Frietjes, Helpful Pixie Bot, Bibcode Bot, BG19bot, Rajcomar, Eulgence108,
OSU1980, N59102, Lugia2453, Passengerpigeon, Dreamism, Randykitty, Tentinator, Salmaodesk, Monkbot, Elmidae, When Other Leg-
ends Are Forgotten, Eel-eye-jar eye-bell, Elenamk, RoseGoldFish, Bender the Bot, Bzlnick, Marco0126 and Anonymous: 118

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minimally).
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